Yale University recently published their 2016 Environmental Performance Index: Global Metrics for the Environment. The report covers various environmental topics, including health impacts, air quality, water sanitation, water resources, agriculture, forests, fisheries, biodiversity and habitat, and climate and energy. The index "ranks countries' performance on high-priority environmental issues in two areas: protection of human health and protection of ecosystems."

The category of Biodiversity and Habitat aims to track the global trend in protection of terrestrial and marine areas, as well as designated conservation species included in environmental policies. According to the report, 15.4% of the world's terrestrial habitats and only 8.4% of marine habitats are designated as protected areas. These figures fail to meet the Convention on Biological Diversity's Aichi Targets of protecting 17% terrestrial habitat and species protection and 10% marine protected areas.

Overall, however, Europe is leading the way in establishing protected areas- far outpacing the rest of the world in its efforts to reduce biodiversity loss. Much of this achievement can be attributed to the adoption and implementation of the EU Habitats Directive. Europe now boasts over 105 000 nationally-designated protected areas, which range in size between 1.3 million hectares to sites protecting individual trees.

Despite the vast amount of protected areas in the EU, many of these sites are fragmented and widely dispersed. This poses problems in protecting what remains of European biodiversity. Indeed, the report further states that despite the increasing trend in establishing and protecting natural habitats, biodiversity is still declining at alarming rates. "The discordance between species loss and growing habitat conservation trends show that current protection efforts are not sufficient to address the drivers of biodiversity loss, including increased industrial and agricultural production and consumption."

Find the full report here: https://issuu.com/2016yaleepi/docs/epi2016_final